Why Does The MSM Mangle Italian Names & Over-Pronounce Hispanic Names?

[stopbush]

I caught some of the MSM "coverage" of the Terri Schiavo story. Why are they all pronouncing her surname as "Shy-vo"? Isn't it "Ski-ah-vo?" It looks Italian. Am I wrong? I was listening to the report and I didn't know who the hell they were talking about until they ran the name in the crawl.

That last Italian name they mangled so badly was Joey Buttafuoco, which they pronounced as "Butt-uh-fook-o," when it's actually "Boot-a-fwo-ko." Maybe they got a kick out of taking a name that means "Fire thrower" in English and pronouncing it to sound like "Butt(er) fucker" instead (big MSM ha-ha as he was involved with an underage girl).

I just find it strange that you have two beautiful languages that are so closely related - Italian & Spanish - and the media types go out of their way to effect a Spanish accent/delivery of Hispanic names (and they usually over do it and sound mannered and condescending) but when it comes to Italian names, they sound like a bunch of maroons.

It would be sort of nice of newsreaders had at least SOME knowledge of foreign languages so they could get a little closer to the true pronunciation. But there seems to be a herd mentality at work: whatever mangling emerges first just gets adopted by the rest of the media without question.

And what's the story on Brett Favre (Fahv-ruh) and the Boston Celtics (Keltics)?

[Spinzonner]

1. I blame "Married With Children"

[xmas74]

2. Not a single damn one of them can pronounce Brett's name right.

BTW-he pronounces it farv instead of the proper pronounciation. Maybe it is a regional thing.

[Dogmudgeon]

3. It's the way they pronounce them

Italian-Americans are notorious for Americanized Italian names. Joey Butafuoco really does pronounce his name "Butt-a-fook-oh". -ia- from Italian is often pronounced like -ai-, which is the sound of the y in 'shy'. The common pronunciation for food is similar -- "Pasta e Fagioli" is usually pronounced "Pasta Faz-oolz".

I haven't noticed too much mangling of Spanish names.

Favre is a French name, and it's pronounced "Fahv". The Boston Celtics is pronounced with a soft C, like "Seltics", by agreement. "Keltics" is the word for the enthnicity, but usually just the Irish, Scots, and Welsh, although the Celts spread to all parts of Europe and some of Asia.

--p!

[stopbush]

4. Actually, the final syllable of Favre's name is voiced as a vanishing

syllable, so the "re" is sounded ever so slightly.

I don't understand what you mean "by agreement" in ref to the Boston Celtics. Please explain.

And I guess it's a person perogative to have their name pronounced how they want it, even if it's not even close to being "correct." I wonder why Italian Americans bother keeping an Italian surname if they're not going to pronounce it like it's Italian. It's interesting that when it comes to first names, they often Americanize their name, ie: Giuseppe becomes Joe. Why not go fully Americanized and change Buttafuoco into Flamethrower? Joey Flamethrower. I kinda like it.

Now I'm worried. With this "pronounce it however you want to" tradition, I might run into Joey Buttafuoco some day and say, "Hey, Joey, how ya doing?"...to which he'll reply, "Hey. Get it right. It's spelled 'Joey,' but we pronounce it like "Robert."

And, yes, the Spanish names don't seem to get mangled as much as they get over-pronounced.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. Italians in New Haven did not pronounce their names in Italian

Cirincione (chee-rin-cho-ne) became "Sa-rinsy-yonee"

Guida (gweeda) became "Gy-da."

Pegnataro (pen-ya-tah-ro) became "peg-na-terro."

They pronounced "mozzarella" as "mootsarell," but since most New Haven Italians came from the Amalfi Peninsula, I figured that was just their local dialect.

[stopbush]

12. Same thing in Jersey. They called it "mootsarella." The good kind was

Boof-a-lo, ie: Buffalo. Strange how they got that one right?

True story: I sang for my brother-in-law's wedding back in the late 80s. He married an Italian, so I did two songs in Italian for the family. At the reception, one of her Americanized relatives came up and asked me, "what was that you sang? Was it some foreign language?"...to which the cousin who had come in from Italy replied, "he was singing in Italian! What's wrong with you? Don't you understand anymore?" They then launched into a heated discussion in Italian, with the imported relative speaking beautifully and clearly, and the American gent - who fully understood what she was saying - offering a sort of pigden version of Italian (the gist of it was the American guy was forgetting his roots...I couldn't catch much more as they started speaking faster and faster).

It set off quite a firestorm for about 10 minutes. I got outta there and went across the street to a Taco Bell to let things cool down.

[Left Is Write]

6. People pronounce Brett Favre's name the way he does.

Can't really fault them for that.

I once worked in radio with a guy who could never get it together. He pronounced Jim Courier's name Coo-ree-ay (which was a natural mistake), but then turned around and pronounced Guy Forget's name just as it looks like. Unfortunately for me, he could see me laughing at him through the control room window and he got pissed off.

[stopbush]

7. I remember watching a Yankees game that Phil Rizzuto was announcing.

Actually, he did the color end of the game.

Anyway, he went into a story about how he always talked about a player's strength as their "forte," which he correctly pronounced as "for-tay." He then said that a friend of his had recently corrected him and told him to pronounce it "fort!" "All these years I've been saying it wrong, so I thank my friend for the correction."

Wrong! You were saying it right, Phil! Your friend was wrong! I immediately called the Stadium and asked to speak with Phil, but they would only let me leave a message.

I don't ever recall whether he went back to his right way or stayed with the incorrect "corrected" way of pronouncing forte.

[peekaloo]

13. almost as good as hearing Harry Caray say Pete Incaviglia

it changed every inning.

[stopbush]

8. It is strange, though, how they flip the position of the v and r and say

Farv.

[tjwmason]

9. If you changed the names

Then Giuseppe Verdi would become Joe Green, which is hardly a name suitable for the great giant of Italian opera.

[stopbush]

15. And Beethoven is "Beet garden"

But neither of them ever moved to Queens...

[tjwmason]

10. Celtic - the Glaswegian football team

Is pronounced with a soft C - as is usual for c followed by e.

[tjwmason]

11. I remember the French nuclear tests about 10 years ago

They were down near Tahiti in the Mururoa Atoll. All of the British news readers just made a vague sound usually nothing like Mururoa.

Until recently we were still pronouncing the Belgian town of Ypres (sight of a major W.W.I battle) wipers - just like the things on the car windscreen.

[stopbush]

14. The Anglican church is great with those funny pronunciations.

Te deum (Tay day-um) becomes "tedium".

Venite (Veh-nee-tay) becomes "veh-ni-tee"

Didn't they recently find out that the American pronunciation of aluminum was correct, much to their chagrin? (Or is it, cha-gran?)